


WILD

by sparrowsmateforlife



Series: Leave This Blue Neighbourhood [1]
Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 01:53:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10754283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrowsmateforlife/pseuds/sparrowsmateforlife
Summary: Isak thinks that secretly, Even likes him best. Isak definitely, and not-so-secretly, likes Even best, and whenever he feels a little bad that he replaced his lifelong best friends for a boy he’s only know for a couple of weeks, Even smiles at him with those crinkles next to his eyes and Isak has to tackle him to the ground to channel the happiness bubbling up inside him.Or, I cannot believe no one has written a Blue Neighbourhood trilogy AU yet so I figured I'd do it myself





	WILD

**10/12**

 

There is a new boy in school and Isak is excited. He spends quite some time looking out his bedroom window when the moving truck arrives a few houses down the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new kid that is supposedly two years older than him. Although he spots a lot of boyish stuff being carried into the house – a bed that looks like his, a trunk that seems like it had toys in it, a desk that seems too small to be an adult’s, a red bike that is almost identical to his own white one – the boy himself never shows.

When the truck drives off Isak hops down from the windowsill and runs downstairs, shouting: “Dad, let’s go see the new neighbours! Their son has a bike and miss Lanser said he’ll come to our school and –” before coming to a halt in the kitchen doorway. His father is sitting at the kitchen table, a glass filled with golden liquid in front of him, his jaw clenched, his gaze aimed at his boats in the backyard. The man barely lifts his head when Isak turns around to go back upstairs, knowing now is not the time to ask his father anything. 

Isak will see the boy the next day at school, he tells himself. It’ll be great. He lays out his maroon snapback and his nicest plaid shirt to wear the next day, determined to convince the new boy to become his friend.

 

//

 

Being the new boy _sucks_. Not only does Even have to introduce himself in front of an entire class of children that are a year younger than him, he has to do so while wearing an ugly long-sleeved shirt his mom made him wear and with hair that is much shorter than he prefers (he knows he has no one to blame for that but himself, but that does stop him from feeling _awful_ about it). To emulate that embarrassment, the teacher then asks him to solve a math problem “because he’d already been taught it the previous year” despite his protests – he of course can’t do it, seeing as he sucks at mathematics and _he is re-doing his year_. Even isn’t usually shy but as a few girls and boys start sniggering while he is struggling in front of the blackboard, he feels his cheeks heating up. Seemingly realising his mistake, the teacher lets him off the hook and Even gets to sit down at his front-row desk. He spend the rest of the time before the break staring stubbornly down at his textbook.

He’d hoped that moving to this small seaside town would’ve been a new start, a new sparkling opening sequence to the film of his life, but so far the scenes were turning out rather bleak. Their new house is on a street facing the sea, which is nice, except he hasn’t been able to sleep through the sound of the waves breaking violently on the shore all night. The house itself is modern and more spacious than the two-bedroom apartment they’d lived in in Oslo, but they do not really have enough furniture to fill all that space. The still-packed boxes in his new bedroom made it feel cold and anything but welcoming. Even’s parents had fought about where to put their sofa in the new living room and Even had run to the empty bathroom, looking into his own eyes, running a hand over his buzz cut, determined not to cry.

As his new classmates run outside for recess, Even follows them, dragging his feet. He remembers his mom encouraging him to make a lot of friends that morning, but right now all he really wants to do was crawl in a corner and wallow in self-pity – cue him bumping into a smaller boy with blonde curls peaking out from under his red snapback.

“Halla, I’m Isak, I live on your street!” the boy almost yells into his face. Overwhelmed, Even shakes his outstretched hand. When he doesn’t say anything back, the boy’s smile wavers a bit, and as his mom’s disapproving face flits through his head, Even sayd: “Hei, I’m Even.”

Isak’s smile returns as quickly as it had disappeared and he bounces on his feet a bit as he gestures towards three boys standing at the other side of the schoolyard: “I’m in the year below you, but I think it’s so cool there’s finally someone young living on my street, it’s mostly just old people, and those are my friends, you can come join us, Mahdi brought playing cards!”

Even blinks slowly at the other boy’s babbling, but then slowly smiles and nods. Isak’s friends are called Jonas, Magnus, and Mahdi, and they are all very nice to Even, be it not as overly enthusiastic as Isak. For the next fifteen minutes Magnus tries to teach them a card game that Even is pretty sure he was inventing on the spot, but they all go along with it and Even finds himself laughing out loud for the first time since he left Oslo.

During lunch Even considers joining a few boys from his class, but when he sees them glancing at him and laughing into their fists he decides to join Isak and his friends again, more than ever aware of his gangly, awkward appearance. However, Isak’s face lights up when he sits down at their table, and once Even takes off his jacket Isak softly nudges his shoulder and mutters: “I really like your shirt.”

Even suddenly finds he doesn’t mind his appearance all that much anymore.

 

_What if, what if we lost our minds?_

_What if we let them fall behind and they're never found?_

_And when the lights start flashing like a photobooth_

_And the stars exploding, we’ll be fireproof_

 

 

**10/12**

 

Isak is _thrilled_.

He had been right about his new neighbour having a bike just like his own. And he was right, so, so, so right about Even being a great new addition to Isak’s life.

The very day after meeting Even, he got up the courage to go up to the new boy’s house before school and ask, very politely, whether he would bike to school with him. Contrary to Isak’s imagination, it hadn’t been Even but his mother who opened the door. Nevertheless, Isak had taken a deep breath and said:

“Hello ma’m I am Isak I live in number 5 a little down the street I talked to your son at school yesterday well actually we played cards during the break and we also had lunch together and he had really tasty sandwiches with chocolate spread which he shared also he was wearing a nice shirt –” Isak had to pause to take another breath “ – and I think that he had fun also and because I live on this street too I was wondering whether perhaps he would like to maybe bike to school together because it isn’t far you see I do it by myself every day and I thought maybe it might be fun to do it not alone anymore.” Isak had had to take another deep breath and had then smiled his very sweetest smile.

At that point Even had appeared behind his mother, his face lighting up when he spotted Isak. Even’s mother, however, had seemed unconvinced.

“Hello Isak, that’s a nice offer but we’ll be driving Even to school. I know it’s not that far but he’s new here, he doesn’t know his way around yet and I’m a little concerned about the traffic”, she had said apologetically.

Isak had been unable to stop his face from falling, softly murmuring, “but, I’ll be with him? So he won’t get lost because I’ve lived here my entire life? And there’s hardly any cars around here ever and -”

At that point, Even had butted in with a “please, mom, please,” with an indeed very convincing, pleading look on his face, and his mom had sighed: “I can’t withstand two pairs of puppy eyes, so okay.”

Isak had beamed, and she had smiled at him indulgently, raising a finger and adding, “You better not leave his side for even a second, young man!”

While Isak had nodded very seriously and assured her that he would stick to Even’s side like glue, the other boy had sprinted towards his garden shed to get his bike.

The rest, so they say, was history.

 

//

 

Isak and Even are sitting on the beach, having ice cream together, when Even tells him why he moved to Isak’s town. They have been biking to school together for about a month at that point, and spending pretty much every second they are not in class together as well. Even fits right into Isak’s small group of friends, getting along great with Jonas, Mahdi, and especially with Magnus, who still couldn’t get over the fact that an older boy wanted to spend time with _them_. Nonetheless, Isak considers Even to be first and foremost _his_ , and sure, he realises how egoistical that sounds, but they _do_ bike to and from school together every day and Even does _always_ sit down next to Isak, even if it means pushing someone else to the side, so Isak thinks that secretly, Even likes him best. Isak definitely likes Even best, and whenever he feels a little bad that he replaced his lifelong best friends for a boy he’s only know for a couple of weeks, Even smiles at him with those crinkles next to his eyes and Isak has to tackle him to the ground to channel the happiness bubbling up inside him.

Even’s hair has started to grow out from the buzz cut he had when he moved in, and Isak had expected him to buzz it off again – but so far, the older boy had let his blonde locks grow until his hair was starting to cover his ears. Now, when Isak has of course finished his ice cream way before Even because he is too impatient to not inhale his food, he finally musters up the courage to touch Even’s hair.

To Isak’s relief, Even does not look weirded out. He just smiles a fond little smile Isak often finds directed at him, and asks, “Enjoying yourself?”

Isak nods shyly, pulling his hand back. “Why are you letting it grow? I liked it short.”

Even looks down at that comment, staring at his small tub of ice cream, his mouth twitching down. Isak immediately wants to take back every single thing he has said in the history of the universe, ever. “I like it long too! I just thought…” he trails off, “I just thought you… wanted it short?”

Even sighs, looking up and shooting Isak a quick smile that did not reach his eyes before staring out into the ocean. “I had to buzz it off because my hair caught fire.”

Isak’s mouth falls open at that.

“How?”

Even doesn’t say anything for a very long time, and Isak somehow feels even worse, whispers, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Even smiles a sad smile at that again, mumbling something under his breath about “You won’t want to be my friend anymore if you know” and, well, that’s just ridiculous. Isak tries to awkwardly put his arm around Even (as much as Isak hated to admit it, Even really was a lot taller than him) and says, “Nah. All Jonas, Magnus and Mahdi talk about is Fifa even though they suck at it. I couldn’t go back to hanging out with only them even if I had to.”

That makes Even smile, genuinely this time, before he sighs again and starts talking.

“It happened on a school trip to the zoo and I was _so_ excited because I hadn’t been there for _years_. So the entire bus ride I was bouncing up and down on my seat and when we got there I kind of… ran away instead of sticking with the group”, he said, all very quickly. “And then when they found me again, I don’t really know what happened but I thought it was so funny that everyone was so mad at me because I’d been gone the entire day. So I was laughing when I got back to the bus and everyone was looking at me kind of weird and then I thought it would just be the best idea to, uhm, set my own hair on fire.”

Isak’s mouth falls open again. “You put your _own_ hair on fire?” He immediately feels Even shrink into himself, and hastily adds, “I mean, I guess that would be a little funny?” although he could not imagine ever finding anything that could potentially hurt his best – _best_ – friend even remotely funny.

Even sighs. “It wasn’t. I don’t know why I did it, I realise it’s not funny. Everyone freaked out and I had to have it all shaved off. And then no one at school would talk to me or even look at me. And then they made me go to a doctor and they think I’m –”

Quiet. Isak doesn’t know what to say or do, so he just stares at the side of Even’s face. His eyes are very blue and a little wet, making them resemble the sea he was currently still staring at. Once again, Isak whispers, “You don’t have to tell me.”

Suddenly, Even looks right at him, almost challenging. “They think I might be bipolar. They say I’m too young to know for sure but they think I might be because I got really sad right after it happened. And I get very happy and very sad a lot. It means something is wrong in my brain. It’s never going to go away.”

Isak lets his arm drop from Even’s shoulder, but he doesn’t move from his side. He’s not sure what bipolar means, but he knows what Even is talking about when it comes to problems with his brain. “My mom is schiz – schizo – schizorefnic.” He is pretty sure he said that wrong, but whatever, it’s a difficult word. “It’s also never going away. She’s in a hospital and I don’t see her very much because dad doesn’t like visiting there.” Isak swallows. “But I still love her. Even if she never feels better.” He looks at the sand, pushing his hand into it, drawing patterns. He hates talking about his mother, but Even told him something very personal and so Isak thought he should tell him something personal, too.

Suddenly, he feels Even envelop him in a very tight hug. Quickly, Isak wraps his arms around Even as well, and they sit like that for what seems like a very long time. Eventually, Even lets go and smiles a crinkled-eye smile at him for the first time in forever (okay, it’s only been like, ten minutes. And Isak _knows_ that, rationally. But it still feels like it has been a very long time and he is relieved that Even does not seem as sad anymore).

When Isak drops Even off at his home – which Even insists daily is ridiculous because he is the older one, and shouldn’t he be the one dropping Isak off? to which Isak says that he made a promise to Even’s mom that first morning and he intends to keep it – Isak waits on Even’s front porch until the boy appears on his balcony to wave at him like he does every evening, even when it rains.

Isak smiles and yells, “I think your brain is lovely!” He’s not sure where that came from or why he felt the need to declare it for the entire street to hear, but the way Even’s face lights up like the sun is worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed :D I did a little research into childhood diagnosis of bipolar, and I purposely kept it vague because the internet is vague about it as well. Please, if anything I say in here is wrong, feel free to tell me.  
> English is not my native language!


End file.
